Archive for July, 2007
Welcome to all the new visitors who have come to this blog after reading about the massacre in online and offline newspapers across the world. This kind of global attention is very important if we are to succeed in stopping the spate of killings, and we thank you for your support. A big thank you also to Newsweek for featuring the crisis, the story made it to the front cover of this week’s edition.
Thank you also to National Geographic for closely following the story, as well as everyone else who has featured this story either on their blogs, or emailed their friends. All the support that the rangers get on the ground, no matter how big or small, is absolutely crucial in these coming weeks. We need to spread the word as much as possible and urge you to write to gorillacampaign@wildlifedirect.org. Virginia from WildlifeDirect will then send you an email to forward to all your family, friends and work colleagues, which will help raise the profile of this massacre. Of course your donations are also terribly important, so please dig deep into your pockets and donate directly to helping those rangers protecting the gorillas. You can make your donation in the box on the right hand side of this blog. All payments are secure, through Paypal, and you can donate either specific items for the rangers, make a one off donation, or sign up to make monthly donations and continue to support the rangers through what will be a challenging time. If you are already on Facebook you can add the ’causes application’ and then join the Gorilla Protection cause. With this application you can tell all your friends as well as fundraise for the rangers through Facebook. Thank you once again for all of your support. The WildlifeDirect Team
I have received an enormous amount of encouragement from all over the world. We are trying to get the message out to as many people as possible, so that the slaughter of our Mountain Gorillas does not go unnoticed. Many people have asked if they can help, and it is a big source of encouragement for us. WildlifeDirect in Virunga have helped put together some campaign material, which we need to get to as many people as possible. If you are willing to help, please just write to gorillacampaign@wildlifedirect.org, saying simply “I would like to be part of the campaign for the Mikeno Gorillas” and we will send you the information as an email.
Thank you so much.
I have been thinking about these images, because we have all found them so upsetting, but as in the past, it is better that people see what is really happening. I will try to recount the events as best I can and I am sorry that the images are so disturbing.
I was in Goma on the night of 22nd. Emmanuel of WildlifeDirect, was in Bukima with members of my team, and Scott and Brent of Newsweek. They heard shots at around 8pm. The next day, a patrol went in from the Bikenge patrol post and quickly found the bodies of three females. It was crushing to hear the news. It is the worsed thing that can happen, when a whole group is attacked, and when so many are killed. The females were Neeza, Safari and Mburanumwe. Safari became famous in the newspapers when she had her baby, Ndeze, back in February. Unasi also had an infant. Mburanumwe was a young subadult female, who was pregnant. It is a massive blow to our efforts to protect the gorillas.
Taking Mburanumwe, a young female, out of the forest. She was pregnant and had been badly burned by her killers It was pouring down with rain when the Bukima team arrived. Mburanumwe had, for some reason that we couldn’t understand, been badly burned. I think it must have been done to offend us, but I don’t know. It’s difficult to get into the minds of people who can do a crime as terrible as this. It was still late and pouring with rain so the search was called off and the team returned to Bukima. The following day, people poured in from the surrounding villages. It was moving to see that our sorrow was shared by so many. They had come to help.
The team split into two groups, with one team of rangers going into the forest with trackers to try to find the remaining gorillas, and the other to carry the dead gorillas back to Bukima and then on to Rumangabo for burial. They searched for other bodies, and within half an hour found the lifeless body of Senkwekwe, the silverback of the group. This was a moment of great pain for all of us.
Senkwekwe, the silverback, is brought out of the forest to be transported to Bukima Our four gorillas were tied to stretchers, and then the long march began. A large number of people had to carry Senkekwekwe, because of his enormous size. It was a long long walk that lasted for over three hours.
Eventually the procession arrived in Bukima, and the Senkwekwe and his group were take by vehicle to be laid to rest \at the graveyard in Rumangabo.
It’s been an extremely difficult week. We’ve had the worst disaster in 30 years, but there are still many gorillas left in Mikeno that need to be protected. The plan is to massively intensify protection. We are going to intensify surveillance, both within the park and along the boundary. Five patrols will each be walking the length of the boundary every day, making it impossible for anyone to enter the area unseen. In addition, small teams of rangers will be staying with each family of gorillas, maintaining a constant watch. This approach is extremely intensive, and unfortunately depletes other parts of the park of their rangers, but given the crisis, we will have to maintain it for at least three months. The approach is also extremely expensive (maintaing 33 rangers on operations will cost close to $5000/month), and your donations have played a huge role in making it possible (we can fund this operation for about 3 months). We’re extremely grateful for that help. Like I said, this approach means that we have to take rangers away from other parts of the park and makes these areas vulnerable to poachers. So the strategy has to be short-term. The long-term solution is to create a highly trained, highly disciplined and well equipped “Gorilla Protection Unit” of 50 rangers that will be based in the gorilla sector. We will start right away and fund-raise for this unit in the hope of having it in place by the end of October.
An amazing piece of news. We had given up hope on Ndeze, the child of Safari, who was being looked after by her brother. Unfortunately he was unable to feed her. My rangers found her today with her older brother. Her brother was quite calm when our rangers took her from him. She needed to be taken into care because otherwise she would die of dehydration. She was already badly dehydrated. She has been taken to Goma to be looked after by the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project vets, and will be with Ndakasi, our orphan from last month’s attack.
I will update you when I get more news on Ndeze’s progress.
The teams from Bukima and Bikenge spent all day searching for the remaining gorillas of the Rugendo group. Our fears were confirmed when Senkekwe, the silverback was found killed at around ten this morning. The four were carried on stretchers for four hours back to Bukima with the help of about 70 people from the villages. We know that three females were killed: Neeza, who had a 2 year old baby who has disappeared. Mburanumwe was a young female that was pregnant and was about to have her first baby. Lastly, Safari, whose baby Ndeze was was born earlier this year. Safari was killed with a bullet through the chest. Her killing broke my heart. When her baby was born in February this year, we took it as a sign of better things to come. Baby Ndeze was seen fleetingly today with her elder brother who is trying to protect her. That he rescued her from her dead mother’s body is incredible. But he cannot feed her because she is still breast-feeding, so she will be badly dehydrated, and is likely to die. We are trying to find them, but it is incredibly difficult in the forest at the moment.
More bad news. The Silverback of the Rugendo family, Senkekwe, has today been found dead. There is also a young infant who has been orphaned by the attacks and was last seen with a blackback, her elder brother. We can no longer find the two and without him having a way to feed her, the infant will most certainly die. There are no words for what we are feeling.
This morning we found three dead females from the Rugendo family. They had all been shot dead. There may even be six gorillas killed in total. I wish I could tell you more but we are still trying to piece together the information that we have. We are deeply shocked.
In 2003 I started an institute. Here we call it a Superior Institute, or Institut Superieur. In the area of Rutshuru, in the southern part of Virunga but outside of the park so there are populations, there is a lack of educational establishments for the local population. And we all need education. So I started the Institut Superieur de l’Ingenierie de Developement et Gestion de l’Environment (Superior Institute for Development Engineering and Environmental Management). It is in a small town called Kiwandja, which is actually where Augustin is from. I obtained, off my own initiative, premises and computers and gradually recruited teachers. Now we are 19 teachers. We teach in a modular format, so for example I may have to be there for a week teaching my part. Because I am busy with my job I cannot be there all the time. Now I am proud to say we have awarded diplomas to 34 individuals since we started 4 years ago.
I often refer to charcoal burning as one of the main illegal activities in Virunga National Park and one of the challenges we face. This may not be clear to all of you. I know everyone is familiar with illegal logging, but charcoal burning is different. In short, people cut down trees to burn them, in situ, to make charcoal. This charcoal is then sold in Goma or elsewhere. We often come across charcoal burning. And these pictures show you how it works. First the charcoal burners chop down a tree. Often, with a tree of this size, they do not use the whole trunk but the large side branches. But they chop the whole tree down anyway.
Then they stack up the branches into a dome shape. Here you can see my men dismantling one of these domes.
Then the charcoal burners put a layer of mud over the wood, to isolate the wood from the atmosphere. This makes the wood burn stronger and form charcoal. They leave it for a day or two to burn. Here you can see what I mean. This was a charcoal burning scene we came across and you can see my Rangers destroying the fire by removing the layer of mud.
Once the wood has become charcoal the people put it into sacks.
So as you can see it causes real destruction, and is one of the principal challenges for me and my Rangers.
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